Available in NiagaraAX-3.5 and later, the On Call Service is a customization of the alarm service that allows you to send alarm notifications to users based on a priority list (“Contact List”). This service initiates an email (or text message) notification for designated alarms, sending the notification sequentially, as alarms escalate, to users based on their assigned priority.
As one or more users on the contact list are sent alarms, any user may acknowledge the alarm and halt the escalation process. However, after a specified time interval, if no user acknowledges the alarm then the alarm is escalated and an email or text message is sent to the next specified user. Alarms are continually escalated until they are acknowledged or until they reach the final escalation level.
On Call Service alarm escalation is a similar concept to alarm escalation, as described in About alarm escalation. The primary functional difference is that the On Call Service allows you to set up a flexible user contact list and schedule
that list using the standard scheduler interface.
The On Call Service is available in the onCall palette, as shown in Figure 196.
You can add the On Call Service to a station by dragging and dropping a copy from the onCall palette.
The general process for the On Call Service is as follows:
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A designated alarm class receives an alarm notification and sends the alarm notification to an On Call Recipient.
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The On Call Recipient sends the alarm notification to the active On Call List.
The “Active” On Call List is designated by the On Call List Schedule.
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The On Call List specifies which users (On Call Contacts) are notified.
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The On Call Contact properties include a reference to a User Alarm Recipient which specifies how the alarm notification is sent. For example, User Alarm Recipient types may include:
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EmailRecipient (sends alarm notification by email)
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SmsRecipient (sends alarm notification by text message)
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Unacknowledged alarms may be escalated and sent, sequentially to other members of the On Call List.
See the following sections for related On Call Service information: